Langston Hughes
Spencer Hubbard Language Arts 84 12/12/12
Langston Hughes Biography Some time on February 1st, in a quiet town in Joplin Missouri, James and Carrie Hughes gave birth to a poet. Shortly after his birth, they separated. His father left the United States for
Cuba and later settled in Mexico. Growing up, Hughes attended Central High School, where he excelled academically and, in sports. His favorite class was english, which got him involved with writing. He wrote poetry and short fiction for the Belfry Owl, the school’s literary magazine, and edited the school yearbook. It was the summer of 1919 when he visited his father in Mexico for the first time. That visit proved to almost be his moral demise because his father was materialistic and, ironically was prejudiced against blacks, Mexicans, and Indians. He thought of them as lazy and ignorant. This changed Hughes perception of himself and other minorities. When Hughes graduated from high school in 1920, he returned to Mexico, where he taught English for a year and wrote poems and literature pieces for publication in the Crisis, the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
In the early 1920s, Hughes worked as a dishwasher boy in Paris. One year later, he enrolled at the Columbia University in New York. His freshman year, he dropped out of college and worked a series of odd jobs to support his mother. In 1923 Hughes signed on as a cabin boy on a merchant freighter en route to West Africa. In 1925 he resettled with his mother and half brother in D.C. while continuing his writing and poetry. In 1925 in May and August, Hughes’s verses garnered him literary prizes from both Opportunity magazine and the Crisis. Four months later, Hughes worked as a busboy at a Washington D.C. hotel, and attracted the attention of the poet, Vachel Lindsay, by placing three of his poems on his dinner table. Later on that evening,
Lindsay read his poems to an audience
Langston Hughes Biography Some time on February 1st, in a quiet town in Joplin Missouri, James and Carrie Hughes gave birth to a poet. Shortly after his birth, they separated. His father left the United States for
Cuba and later settled in Mexico. Growing up, Hughes attended Central High School, where he excelled academically and, in sports. His favorite class was english, which got him involved with writing. He wrote poetry and short fiction for the Belfry Owl, the school’s literary magazine, and edited the school yearbook. It was the summer of 1919 when he visited his father in Mexico for the first time. That visit proved to almost be his moral demise because his father was materialistic and, ironically was prejudiced against blacks, Mexicans, and Indians. He thought of them as lazy and ignorant. This changed Hughes perception of himself and other minorities. When Hughes graduated from high school in 1920, he returned to Mexico, where he taught English for a year and wrote poems and literature pieces for publication in the Crisis, the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
In the early 1920s, Hughes worked as a dishwasher boy in Paris. One year later, he enrolled at the Columbia University in New York. His freshman year, he dropped out of college and worked a series of odd jobs to support his mother. In 1923 Hughes signed on as a cabin boy on a merchant freighter en route to West Africa. In 1925 he resettled with his mother and half brother in D.C. while continuing his writing and poetry. In 1925 in May and August, Hughes’s verses garnered him literary prizes from both Opportunity magazine and the Crisis. Four months later, Hughes worked as a busboy at a Washington D.C. hotel, and attracted the attention of the poet, Vachel Lindsay, by placing three of his poems on his dinner table. Later on that evening,
Lindsay read his poems to an audience